Small Business Coaching Manchester NH

Local resource for small business coaching in Manchester, NH. Includes detailed information on small business coaches that give access to start-up business advice, marketing plans, leadership style examination, business plans, and organization development, as well as advice and content on other business solutions.

3 Ways To Jumpstart Your Home-based Business

By Greg Montenegro

A lot of people do not realize that entrepreneurs play a big role in our society.

When you put the total number of entrepreneurs together, they count as the biggest financial contributors to our nation's wealth. If only politicians would give grants to finance small business start-ups, the economy's growth could be hastened.

Knowing the obvious financial rewards and the important role to society of business owners, many individuals aspire to be entrepreneurs. The fact remains, however, that several business start-ups fail and never take-off from the ground because of one thing : the lack of adequate and sufficient knowledge on how to start a profitable business. In this article, I will attempt to give practical strategies on how to run a successful business start-up.

First: find opportunities in your own backyard. Look at the demand side by observing your neighborhood. It is good to assess the close-to-home demand for starters. Aside from familiarity with the area, familiarity with the customer will be an enormous advantage.

Your neighborhood is not strictly your home address. It can be any area that you may be familiar with. It can be the university vicinity. After all, a student spends more time in school vis-a-vis his home. Familiarity with the demand in the area will reveal these business opportunities.

Therefore, an aspiring entrepreneur would simply continue this statement:

" How I wish something like this was available in school while I was a student! And this is "

Similarly, one could say about home:

" How I wish that something like this were available near the place where I stay! And this is ."

To cite an example: you are into baking cakes. Why not check if there is an opportunity to supply your local diners with your baked products? Find out if the neighborhood needs another supplier of baked goods. If there is no such demand in your familiar area, look for another area where your supply has its demand. Statements like these indicate a desire for something that is not yet available in the area. This approach is based on one's familiarity with the demand.

Secondly, choose an opportunity that brings out the best in you. Do not choose an opportunity purely because of its income potential. Income is a natural consequence of the entrepreneur's passion as expressed in the enterprise set-up.

Nevertheless, before choosing the opportunity, spend sometime defining your personal vision, mission, and values. This is a key foundation of great entrepreneurs. They know what they want for themselves, (personal vision). They know what they live for (personal mission). They know what they live by (personal values). These three items constitute the foundation of passion.

Equally important is doing a personal assessment. What are you good at? What are you not good at? In other words, you must know thyself. Great entrepreneurs know themselves very well.

10 Rules for Small Business Success

by Isabel Isidro

Every day, new business ventures are created. Some of these businesses will succeed, but many will fall by the wayside. Others will be able to take-off to a great start, given their ample resources and capital, but will falter along the way. Some ventures may be on a shaky ground at the start, but with perseverance and careful planning will prevail in the end.

Will your business thrive, or will it join thousands of others that have faltered along the way? Here are ten rules to make sure your business grows and prospers:

1. Find a Niche.

For small businesses, it is best to find a niche. A small company with limited resources can efficiently serve niche markets. Concentrate your efforts on a fairly narrow market offering. This entails sticking to what you do best, and becoming an expert in that field. Realize that it is not possible to be good at everything. By concentrating on a fairly narrow market niche, you may be able to avoid head-on collision with bigger competitors. If you are a hardware store selling everything from paints to lumber, the entry of giant retailers like Home Depot in your area can spell the end for your business. However, you can try to limit your offering, for example, to construction of porches and decks and be the best retailer for this segment.

2. Be small, yet think big.

The most common question of small business start-ups is "How can I compete with my big competitors?" Small businesses have inherent advantages over big businesses, including flexibility, ability to respond quickly, able to provide a more personalized service. Make sure that your business takes maximum advantage of those areas that represent the strengths of small companies.

3. Differentiate your products.

Present the benefits of your products and services to your customers, highlighting the unique solutions it offers to their problems. Avoid being a copycat; rarely do imitators succeed in the market. Study, but do not copy your competitors, and package your products distinctly.

4. First impression counts.

Strive for accuracy and quality the first time around. You often do not have a second chance to make a good first impression. This entails a well-laid out store, courteous staff, and personable voice over the phone, etc. However, if you are a one-person business working in a home office, remember that you are the center of your business and marketing efforts. Everyone you come in touch with is potentially a client or a referral to another client because they are either impressed with you as a person, impressed with your skill at providing a certain service or product. Make sure that you are always presentable, professional in your ways and knowledgeable about your business.

5. Good reputation.

Your business hinges on its reputation. It is imperative that you build a good reputation for the quality of your products and support services. Rem...

Small Business Branding: The Personal Connection

by William Arruda

Business is becoming more and more competitive. Small Business is the fastest growing segment of business in most parts of the world. And thanks to the internet, your competitors are no longer just the businesses down the street. They are the businesses in the next town, the next country and even on the next continent. So, as the leader of a small business, how do you succeed in a dynamic world of increasing complexity with a much larger set of competitors? The answer seems too easy to be true:

Be Yourself.

To succeed with your small business and keep it on the right track, use your personal brand - your unique promise of value. Because in the world of small business, the corporate Brand is the personal brand of its leaders. These brands are inextricably linked. You need only look at successful entrepreneurs like Ben and Jerry, Richard Branson and Bill Gates to see that entrepreneurial ventures take on the values and passions of their leaders. According to Nation's Business Magazine, "Branding is the hottest concept in marketing today, and, it's an idea that is not just for the deep-pocketed, highly glossed Coca-Colas and Nikes of the world. An increasing number of independent-business owners are embracing branding as the guiding philosophy for building their companies."

Being true to your personal brand ensures that your business stays on course and remains highly differentiated and valuable to your target market. Christophe Ginisty, Managing Director of the Communications Firm Rumeur Publique, says "Buyers are putting their trust not only in a company, but in the leaders of that company. For small businesses, the leaders are often even more important. It is critical to ensure that the leaders are an integral part of the corporate communications strategy and that their personal brands are clear, relevant and accurate."

Building your business around your brand also enables you to obtain the highest level of satisfaction and fulfillment from your hard work. The first and most important step in brand building involves uncovering your unique promise of value. This helps you to identify what is truly important to you, what makes you unique and what values will drive your business decisions. Understanding your true personal brand enables you to stay on target with your business and make strategic and tactical decisions that are consistent with your values, your passions and your goals.

Once you have a clear understanding of your differentiation and its relevance to your ideal target audience, you can build a brand communications plan to get your message out to those who will make your business a success. These communications need only be focused on your target market. If your target market is everyone in the world, you will need a communications budget the size of Coca Cola's. That's why focus is the key. Although it seems counter-intuitive, the smaller you make your target market, the greater your chances ...

Successful Small Businesses Use PR

It's obvious when a small business has accepted the fact that its most important outside audiences need lots of care and feeding. They do something about it.

There's a sense of urgency and a recognition that those "key target publics" have behaviors that really impact the business, and that they had BETTER do something about it!

What about you? Are you ready to follow the winners and get public relations working for your small business?

The payoff can be significant - key audience behaviors that directly support your business objectives and make the difference between failure and success.

But, as always, there's some work connected to reaching that pot of gold, but it's really worth the effort.

If you're willing, begin by listing those most important outsiders in a priority ranking. Probably, customers and prospects will take #1 and #2 positions. But others rate a spot on that list depending on how crucial they are to the success of your business. In fact, an audience only makes the list if, left unattended, its perceptions and behaviors actually can hurt your business.

You're at a disadvantage when you don't know what those important external audiences think of you and your small business. And the only affordable way to find out is for you and your colleagues to talk to members of that key audience by interacting with them. Ask questions about what they think of you, your business and its products or services. Especially watch for any negativity, misconceptions, inaccuracies, wrong-headed beliefs, or rumors. And monitor local print and broadcast media, especially local talk shows and newspaper pages, for similarly negative signs.

The responses you gather help you set your public relations goal. For instance, correct that wrong-headed belief; fix that inaccuracy; or straighten-out that misconception. The goal, by the way, will also become your behavior modification marker against which progress can be tracked.

But how do you get there? You select a strategy from the three available to you: create perception/opinion where none may exist, change existing perception/opinion, or reinforce it. The public relations goal you just set will lead you directly to the right choice of strategies.

The message you send to your target audience is crucial, and writing it can be hard work because it must alter the negativity you found when you interviewed audience members.

Above all, it must be persuasive while clearly presenting the facts. It must be credible, believable and timely as it explains truthfully what is at issue at that moment. In short, your message must be compelling.

Getting that finished message to the right eyes and ears is your next challenge. And that means selecting the right communications tactics, and you have dozens of them available to you. Speeches, press releases, emails, meetings, radio and newspaper interviews, action alerts, brochures, newsletters and so many others.

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